The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.
Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.
Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels.
My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars.
Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their pillars.
For now they will say: “We have no king, for we do not fear the Lord; and a king—what could he do for us?”
They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.
The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-aven. Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests— those who rejoiced over it and over its glory— for it has departed from them.
The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.
Samaria's king shall perish like a twig on the face of the waters.
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.”
From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah?
Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself.
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors,
therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great evil. At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.
The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.
I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me.
The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels.
My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.
I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.
They shall go after the Lord; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west;
they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.
Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.
Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.
The Lord has an indictment against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him according to his deeds.
In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God.
He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us—
the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial name:
“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”
I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.
I spoke to the prophets; it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets gave parables.
If there is iniquity in Gilead, they shall surely come to nothing: in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls; their altars also are like stone heaps on the furrows of the field.
Jacob fled to the land of Aram; there Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he guarded sheep.
By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was guarded.
And now they sin more and more, and make for themselves metal images, idols skillfully made of their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of them, “Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”
Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes early away, like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window.
But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.
It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought;
So I am to them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is kept in store.
The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son, for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb.
I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
Though he may flourish among his brothers, the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come, rising from the wilderness, and his fountain shall dry up; his spring shall be parched; it shall strip his treasury of every precious thing.
Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.
Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.